Alta Ski Resort near the entrance to the Albion Basin Trail.
We are lucky to live in such a beautiful area. With the Pioneer Holiday in Utah today, we decided to take the kids up Little Cottonwood Canyon to see the flowers at Albion Basin. In only took 45 minutes to drive up to Alta Ski Resort from our house. Although it is the 24th of July, there is still a little snow up in the top of the canyon. However, the weather was perfect for a hike: sunny and calm with the temperature in the upper 60’s.
Hiking on the Albion Basin Trail about 9000 ft. above sea level.
The sad part is that even though my wife and I grew up in Utah, we had never been up to Alta before. Yet in the parking lot, there were license plates from Georgia, Wisconsin, and even Maine. As we were growing up, we never could afford to go skiing, which is tragic considering the world-class resorts in our own backyard. At any rate, we figure it’s not too late to give our children the opportunity to appreciate some of the wonders and beauty of nature around us. Although there were a few groans when we loaded up the car, they were all grateful once we were on the trail.
As we arrived at the top of the canyon, we were a little disappointed to find that the Albion Basin Campground and parking lot were already full. Not that we were planning on camping, but we were going to park at the campground parking lot and hike the 1.5-mile trail to Cecret Lake. I really shouldn’t have been surprised with the crowd considering it was a holiday weekend. Not to be deterred, we parked a little farther down the road and took off on the Albion Basin Trail from the base of Alta Ski Resort. We were constrained on time, so we didn’t make it all the way up to the lake, but we enjoyed hiking a little over a mile up the trail.
It was gorgeous! Lots of wildflowers blooming along the trail with a variety of vivid colors: purples, reds, whites, yellows, oranges, etc. It felt good to breathe in the fresh air. Very invigorating. I’m sure we’ll do it again (this time all the way up to Cecret Lake) as there is still plenty of summer to go before the snow starts to fly.